Sagan and Seth are both: Nerds, with a bit of money and influence who want to see interest in science increase in America, with the personality to pull it off. (Yes, I know he's not going to be on the show, but getting the show made takes people skills). Also, weed.

He says he got high on set...do celebs in Cali all have MMJ cards? I know they wouldn't have to "worry" about it, but why not make it official?

Strategeryz0r:I was watching Cosmos on netflix the other day when I started thinking it deserved to be re-done for a modern audience.

Cosmos

does NOT need to be re-done for a "modern" audience. Making everything "modern" is what's ruined most of entertainment. What, we're going to give NdGT a talking parrot making snide comments while everything he says is followed by some silly noise track? Every episode will feature a "Big Bang Bikini moment" where some factoid sound bite is delivered by an AW? No thanks. If you have ANY capacity to enjoy science at all, Carl Sagan's eloquence is just as effective today as it was when the show first aired.

The main justification for re-booting Cosmos is that we've learned so much more since Sagan's death. And I mean while people were shiatting on NASA, the amount of knowledge they've accumulated is staggering.

Cosmos aired in 1980. Here is just a short, painfully partial list of discoveries off the top of my head since then:1) Stars that are the most powerful magnets in the universe; they can wipe credit cards from 100 million miles away.2) Winds on Neptune over 1000mph.3) Planets orbiting other stars, including some so close they are being literally vaporized by their suns.4) The Boötes void, a region of space so vast and empty the imagination can't comprehend it. It's a bubble of nothing 250 million light-years wide.5) Hydrocarbon lakes on the Saturnian moon Titan.6) A sea of dwarf planets beyond the outer gas giants (which controversially resulted in Pluto's demotion)7) Giant, collapsing stars that turn into gamma-ray cannons so powerful they can be detected from the far reaches of the visible universe and could cause a mass extinction from thousands of light-years away.

dragonchild:Strategeryz0r: I was watching Cosmos on netflix the other day when I started thinking it deserved to be re-done for a modern audience.

Cosmos does NOT need to be re-done for a "modern" audience. Making everything "modern" is what's ruined most of entertainment. What, we're going to give NdGT a talking parrot making snide comments while everything he says is followed by some silly noise track? Every episode will feature a "Big Bang Bikini moment" where some factoid sound bite is delivered by an AW? No thanks. If you have ANY capacity to enjoy science at all, Carl Sagan's eloquence is just as effective today as it was when the show first aired.

The main justification for re-booting Cosmos is that we've learned so much more since Sagan's death. And I mean while people were shiatting on NASA, the amount of knowledge they've accumulated is staggering.

Cosmos aired in 1980. Here is just a short, painfully partial list of discoveries off the top of my head since then:1) Stars that are the most powerful magnets in the universe; they can wipe credit cards from 100 million miles away.2) Winds on Neptune over 1000mph.3) Planets orbiting other stars, including some so close they are being literally vaporized by their suns.4) The Boötes void, a region of space so vast and empty the imagination can't comprehend it. It's a bubble of nothing 250 million light-years wide.5) Hydrocarbon lakes on the Saturnian moon Titan.6) A sea of dwarf planets beyond the outer gas giants (which controversially resulted in Pluto's demotion)7) Giant, collapsing stars that turn into gamma-ray cannons so powerful they can be detected from the far reaches of the visible universe and could cause a mass extinction from thousands of light-years away.

Strategeryz0r:I'm actually rather excited for this. I was watching Cosmos on netflix the other day when I started thinking it deserved to be re-done for a modern audience. I think it'll be pretty sweet.

At the very least it's something to smoke a ton of my weed to.

Yeah, they updated Cosmos a little (they added Sagan giving updates at the end to some new discoveries) a while back, the late 80's I think, and I have those updated versions on my media server. Great stuff!

I'm really looking forward to this... though I want to keep my expectations realistic. A lot of what made Cosmos so good was Sagan himself. His personal passion really shone through, and he was a likeable, charismatic guy. NDT is charismatic too, though in a bit of a different way.

mongbiohazard:A lot of what made Cosmos so good was Sagan himself. His personal passion really shone through, and he was a likeable, charismatic guy. NDT is charismatic too, though in a bit of a different way.

There really is no one else like Sagan. He had a passion for science that truly inspired him and filled him with awe and wonder but more importantly he was able to convey these feelings to regular people. He inspired a whole generation of scientists and creative thinkers.

I can't even imagine what the world and the universe looked like to Sagan. He seemed uniquely able to grasp the vastness and the inner workings. Sagan was there in the room at JPL when the first images of the moons of Jupiter were transmitted back. Before that they were nothing more than fuzzy blobs of light as far as the sum total of human knowledge was concerned. The infinitesimally small portion of the universe that comprised the molecules of Sagan's body was, in that moment, made exponentially aware of certain other parts of the universe. The nature of the universe itself changed that day.

And for now NdGT is the closest thing we have to Sagan. He's likable and he shows excitement, and he's clearly the best choice for a new version of the show. He's really the only choice. In my heart of hearts I would like to hope that Niel gets his "Sagan" moment. I hope, years from now, he gets to sit in a control room somewhere watching expectantly as we go ice-fishing on Europa. Finding other life in the cosmos would be one of the most significant achievements in all of human history, and I hope NdGT is the first one to be there for it. And if anyone is able to take that excitement and convey it to the rest of us, and to inspire humanity for generations with it, it will be him.

And in the meantime, I'll be more than happy to watch anything he hosts.

/Sleep well, Sagan. Your words and your mark on the universe will not soon be forgotten.

Zombalupagus:He had a passion for science that truly inspired him and filled him with awe and wonder but more importantly he was able to convey these feelings to regular people. He inspired a whole generation of scientists and creative thinkers.

One is not the other. I seriously doubt Sagan successfully conveyed any feelings to "regular people". Regular people utterly lack a sense of wonder. Talk about Sagan to "regular people" and you'll get snide comments about a commie pinko pothead. Nothing you say can awaken a curiosity that died early in childhood.

Sagan is relevant today because of your last sentence. Many people who did go on to become scientists were first inspired by Carl Sagan. The PBS budget for that show probably made itself back a thousand times over in economic productivity alone. It is arguably economically essential to encourage this sort of wonderment for that reason alone. But for all of Carl's admirable efforts, "regular people" were just as stupid and derpy after the show aired as before.

dragonchild:One is not the other. I seriously doubt Sagan successfully conveyed any feelings to "regular people". Regular people utterly lack a sense of wonder. Talk about Sagan to "regular people" and you'll get snide comments about a commie pinko pothead. Nothing you say can awaken a curiosity that died early in childhood.

Hey. "Regular person" over here. I loved Cosmos and had the utmost respect for Carl Sagan.